Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi (R) meets with former presidential candidate and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa at the presidential palace in Cairo, Nov. 3, 2012. (photo by REUTERS/Egyptian Presidency/Handout)

Deadline Set for Final Vote on Egypt’s Constitution

Author: almasryalyoumPosted November 6, 2012

Hossam Ghariani, chairman of the Constituent Assembly that is tasked with drafting Egypt’s constitution, decided yesterday [Nov. 5] to set Wednesday as the deadline for receiving proposals regarding the last draft of the new constitution.

Summary⎙ Print After months of political wrangling, a deadline has been set for the final vote on Egypt’s new constitution. Al-Masry Al-Youm reports on the last-ditch bids by parties opposed to Islamic interference in the new document to alter the committee tasked with drafting it.

The drafting committee is supposed to finish reviewing these proposals on Saturday [Nov. 10], so that the assembly votes on its articles — which have been agreed upon — on Sunday and opens the floor to discuss articles on which the members ask to comment, before completing the final draft constitution.

While the drafting committee of the Constituent Assembly published yesterday evening [Nov. 5] the texts of 102 articles that have been drafted so far, Amr Moussa, head of the Conference Party and member of the Constituent Assembly, collected signatures of the assembly members to add amendments to the draft constitution’s articles.

During the plenary session of the assembly yesterday, Moussa said that almost one third of the assembly members signed the document and the amendments of many controversial articles. He called representatives of Islamic movements to sign the document that was due to be submitted to Ghariani today.

In a similar context, the conference titled “a constitution for all Egyptians,” organized by Al-Masry Al-Youm on Nov. 4, adopted a package of recommendations that were read by Mohammed Salmawi, author and chairman of the conference.

These recommendations include restructuring the Constituent Assembly; adopting a presidential, parliamentary or mixed system of governance before adopting the new constitution; reflecting the spirit and objectives of the January [2011] revolution in the constitution; and rejecting any prejudice of the independence of the judiciary or any restrictions to press freedom.

Participants in the conference agreed on the need for Egypt’s President Mohammad Morsi to restore balance in the Constituent Assembly, whether by restructuring it or by adding new members.

In a similar context, Egypt’s presidential spokesman Yasser Ali denied rumors that the presidency leans towards promulgating an interim constitution until a consensus on the new constitution is reached, stressing that this would place Egypt in yet another new transitional phase, which the country couldn’t bear at this moment.

Morsi received yesterday evening additional political forces and figures to discuss the crisis regarding the consensus on the constitution, including Abdul-Jalil Mustafa, Essam Sultan, Mohamed Beltagy and Fakhri Kharroub.

On the other hand, the Central Auditing Organization rejected articles relevant to the organization in the draft constitution and considered that “[the articles] are politicizing the organization and taking away its powers.”